Only in a Teacher's Life

Today was just too funny to not post about this. One of the greatest parts of teaching is the interactions with my students. Today was certainly no exception.

First of all, it has to be said...I can be a weeeee bit sarcastic.

One of my students, Michael, thinks he is the smartest person in the room. Today I was throwing around a bit of sarcasm in class. Promptly, Michael turns around to me and the following conversation occurs.

Michael: Was that sarcasm?
Me: Possibly....
Michael: Well, I don't like sarcasm.
Me: (with this look of disbelief on my face) Son, you are in the wrong classroom!

What I love about this is that Michael loves to use sarcasm. He is one who likes to dish it out, but he doesn't like to take it. I just laughed when he made that comment. The class, as astute as ever, laughed right along with me.

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In my last class I was teaching about the ancient caste system of India. We continued the discussion of arranged marriages. That led to quite a discussion among the kids. We also talked about how it was acceptable for a man to take a second wife during this time period if he and his first wife could not produce children.

I could see the neurons firing away in some of the students' heads. Anthony raised his had to ask me a question.

Anthony:  Does that mean if I were to have 19 wives and none of them produced children then I could marry and have a 20th wife.
Me: (after a quick moment to process it all) Anthony, if you were to have 19 wives and NONE of them were to produce a child then I can safely say there is absolutely nothing wrong with your wives. The problem would be YOU.

It took him a moment to process that. My higher level students were cracking up...they got it. Anthony had the best look of confusion on his face.

Oh, I love teaching middle school kids.

Note: I am happy that Anthony did not ask me to clarify my statement. I did not want to get into a lesson on human reproduction. That is not part of my curriculum nor part of my contract.